Visual Artist, Gallerist, & Designer

Phillip Simpson, also known as the Smile Man of Detroit, is a multidisciplinary artist whose main mission is to spread joy to others. His signature two-tone smiley faces are inspired by yin and yang; light & dark and sadness & happiness. Life is about balance, one does not know they are experiencing joy without ever having experienced sadness. From a young age Simpson was always designing his own clothes and now his Smile brand is sold at Neiman Marcus. In addition to designing apparel, Simpson is a muralist. His love for public art began after seeing Tyree Guyton’s Heidelberg Project. Phillip Simpson’s signature smiles can be found in neighborhoods all across the city of Detroit. From 2015-2019 Simpson ran the Baltimore Gallery where he was introduced to artists and collectors such as James H. Dozier, Dan Graschuck, and Darryl DeAngelo Terrell. Phillip Simpson is a man that is dedicated to the arts and to his community. “You’ve gotta believe in it [art] to the 10th power, because there will be times you’ll be making no money at all… but be human. Fight for it. I’m the kid from the Boys and Girls Club that’s here now.”

Visual Artist, Educator, & Urban Farmer

Michael Reid became interested in the arts as a teenager via the skateboarding and photography scene in Detroit. He is a multidisciplinary artist and educator at the Brightmoor Makers Space and CCS’ Community Arts Partnership. He is skilled in many practices such as: photography, tattooing, painting, woodworking, and bike mechanics. Reid is captivated with painting nightscapes of scenes from his home & garden in Brightmoor and incorporating figures into his paintings, whether they are people he knows or figures that transcend from the light rays captured from a street lamp or fire.

VIsual Artist, Gallerist, & DJ

Dalia Reyes was born in Valle Hermoso Tamaulipas, Mexico and lived there until she was five years old before moving to Southwest Detroit with her family. Art, music, and spirituality was always present in Reyes’ life growing up and this has had a great influence in her love for the arts and music. Reyes is known for creating portals and explorations of places of abstraction and the unknown beyond our earthly realm. The act of creating these portals was birthed through the practice of meditation and they have now taken on a meditative state of their own. In addition to working as an artist, Dalia Reyes is a local dj [DJ Dreamy Lover] and has been working as a gallerist since 2004. She has worked as a gallerist at Henry Ford Community College, College for Creative Studies, the Detroit Artists Market, and most recently has been the director and curator at Adanan Charara’s gallery, Galerie Camille. Dalia Reyes has also worked for Kresge Arts Detroit, taught art to children ages 7-17, and worked with CCS’ Detroit Art Collective where they offered art services to the Detroit Zoo and Hutzel and Childrens Hospital.

Visual Artist

Art has always been the norm for painter and sculptor, Mario Moore. His mother, Sabrina Nelson, baptized him in the arts & culture world from day one; so creating came naturally. Moore’s goal in his work is to emphasize past and present history, and promote empathy and understanding of the figures he includes. He is not afraid to think outside the box and wants viewers to know that history is cyclical. “Be wary of fear. Fear can close all the doors, and you’re doing it to yourself”. In addition to working as an artist, Moore has worked as a studio assistant for artist, Titus Kapher and has taught at multiple colleges across the United States.

Visual Artist

Loralee Grace is a Detroit-based multidisciplinary artist that was born & raised in Grand Rapids, MI and has studied and traveled abroad to 27 countries across 5 of the 7 continents. Her nomadic adventures have had a grand influence on her artwork. Grace seeks to bring awareness to the social and ecological injustices she has witnessed firsthand while on her trips abroad that disproportionately affect Black and Indigenous communities. Her work celebrates the beauty of culture and landscapes of our world while also serving as a warning of the possibilities that may arise if humanity does not address its ecological impact on the planet. She depicts landscapes of her travels, patterning that is unique to the culture of the area, as well as figures who are wearing air filtration masks as a direct result of ecological injustice.

Visual Artist & Gallerist

Ian Matchett is a figure painter and gallerist from Detroit that uses his work to highlight past and present revolutionaries throughout local and global history. He has been known to paint radical figures such as: Assata Shakur, Ho Chi Minh, Karl Marx, and Fred Hampton. In addition to being a painter, Matchett ran a non-profit organization from 2014-2016 where he was responsible for collecting funding for electoral money and promoting knowledge on upcoming elections, and being an advocate for voters’ rights. He now runs the “Brick & Mortar Collective” which is a group equity housing co-op on Detroit’s eastside. In addition to his skills as a painter and revolutionary, Matchett is the director of Swords Into Plowshares, a Detroit peace center and gallery that opened in 1985 and exhibits artwork centered around peace and justice.

Visual Artist

Daniel Geanes, also known as ECNTRC Danny, is a digital artist and self-taught painter. When Geanes was in high school, he was sitting at the kitchen table drawing while he waited for his dinner, and that is when his character ECNTRC was born. ECNTRC (pronounced eccentric) is a stylized young black male. This character is recurring in Geanes’ artwork and is used as a symbol of Danny’s perceptions of self, others, and social, political, and mental issues. In addition to ECNTRC, proverbs and the numbers 9 and 0 are also recurring in his work. While meditation Geanes came to the conclusion that nine represents the highest a man can get [ego] and zero represents the infinite nature of life [enlightenment]. While Danny is a young man on the scene, he has made an impact in the arts and culture community by creating a mural on Uta Brauser’s “Packard Art House”, partnering with Eastern Market Brewing Co. to have one of his paintings be the label for their new ale, and working with his partner Eradajere Oleita on the Chip Bag Project.

Visual Artist & Gallery Assistant

Christopher Gene is a photographer and gallery assistant. Gene’s path to becoming a photographer has a rather interesting backstory… When he was in 8th grade he took an online career test and one of the results said “photographer”. Gene had not given any thought into being a photographer at the time, in fact, he wanted to be an actor but his speech impediment stopped him from pursuing that goal; so he pursued photography as the next best thing because he wouldn’t have to do much talking. From then on he has pursued photography and has found a great love and respect for this art form. Christopher Gene loves photographing people and capturing them in the moment to create a narrative. In 2019 Gene graduated from the College for Creative Studies with a BFA in photography and he applied to a photo show at the Scarab Club that same year; he was accepted into the exhibition and ended receiving third place in the exhibition. Shortly after this exhibition Gene began working as a gallery assistant at the Scarab Club where he is responsible for installation, events, and promotions.

Visual Artist

Dalejuan Littleton is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist that is well known for his erotic photography. Littleton has expressed his creativity through fashion and experimentation and has always believed “If the world was a more open-minded place creatively, things would be better. The world would advance faster”. And perhaps, that is why he chose photography as his primary medium. Photographs are often open to interpretation, and that is how Dalejuan Littleton views his art form; it is not just nude or erotic photos. While photography itself is an artform, Littleton has the ability to capture the art of intimacy and love-making.

Humanitarian, Visual Artist, & Curator

Eradajere Oleita is was born in Lagos, Nigeria and moved to Detroit in 2014. Since she was a child she was always interested in the arts and made art with anything she could get her hands on. For example, as a child in Lagos she would create things such as wallets, purses, and accessories out of chip bags. This knowledge of creating objects out of chip bags would come in handy circa 2020. In 2020 Oleita began The Chip Bag Project which she defines as a “love letter to her community” where she transforms used chip bags into sleeping bags for houseless people. In addition to creating The Chip Bag Project, Eradajere Oleita is a painter that is inspired by Japanese prints and watercolor paintings. Oleita also curates pop-up exhibitions actoss the city in beauty supply shops, gas stations, and liquor stores as a means to make art more accessible to her community.

Designer, Writer, & Model

Desawna Buford is a walking, talking, breathing piece of art. Buford’s primary talent has always been writing; there is such a spiritual and emotional rawness that flows from fingertip to pen to paper, or even just in the way she speaks so eloquently. She has the ability to captivate an audience and make her presence known and this has benefitted her greatly as a designer and model. Aside from writing, clothes have always been outlet for Buford. She has created her fashion brand, Katouri, [originating from the word culture] which was designed with the intent to amplify Black culture, history, and legacies while also being wearable. In regards to modeling & making clothes, Desawna Buford believes “To see is to feel and to hear. Most people think because they’re looking, they can see. You’re not feeling it, you’re just looking.”

Visual Artist

Miranda Kyle is a watercolor painter and collage artist. Kyle does not like to be restricted to traditional drawing/painting supports and prefers the freeform nature of creating watercolor paintings and then ripping and collaging them together. Her figurative paintings relay her experiences as an African American woman as well as addressing themes like family, colorism, and racism. She believes it is important for people to be more open-minded to what art is and how it’s made, so one can imagine how thrilled she was to participate in Asia Hamilton’s 2022 Womxnhouse installation. Participants of Womxnhouse are assigned an area of Hamilton’s home and are allowed to artistically transform the space with their work. This year Miranda Kyle had the opportunity to transform the stairwell of the home; she included eight of her collaged watercolor paintings in the installation.

Visual Artist

Zyaire Brownlee is a graphic designer and photographer. She career in graphic design began in high school and carried with her throughout her collegiate journey where she would create logos and fliers for customers. Brownlee’s photographs are more than a quick snapshot; she carefully curates her sets and models, and conceptualism and color are extremely important to her work. She is inspired by music videos and magazines. Brownlee has traveled throughout the city of Detroit and Atlanta, Georgia to photograph local models and events such as Afropunk.

Visual Artist & Gallery Assistant

Dayana Juarez is a cosmic dreamscape painter from Southwest Detroit, but lived with her family in Mexico from the time she was a year old until she turned five. As a little girl she was always creating and asking for art supplies, and at age thirteen she decided to take her career as an artist seriously. Juarez would stay after school to strengthen her skills as an artist and was under the mentorship of jessica Care moore and Sabrina Nelson. Dayana Juarez will be graduating from CCS with a BFA and certification in K-12 art education in December of 2022. Over the past few years Juarez has been working as an assistant at Galerie Camille under the mentorship of Dalia Reyes and Adnan Charara. In addition to working as a gallery assistant, Juarez has been commissioned to paint murals, live paint at art events, and art teach workshops throughout the Detroit area.

Visual Artist & Gallery Assistant

Jaime Pattison was born and raised in Canada, but is now a Detroit-based artist. She is painter that investigates the figure in domestic spaces through large scale monochromatic oil paintings. Some of her domestic spaces are absent of a figure, but the essence of someone or something is still there; a used bar of soap in the shower, clothes inside of a closet, kitchen scenes with dishes in cupboards, etc. Her use of vibrant, monochromatic paints comes from emotional intensity and how people feel in certain spaces, asking the question of “How is my space a reflection of me?” In addition to being a working artist, Pattison works as a gallery assistant at Galerie Camille under the mentorship of Dalia Reyes and Adnan Charara.

Visual Artist

For Sudani Shaah, art is a part of her heritage; she has always been surrounded by art & culture because of her mother, Sabrina Nelson, and her brother, Mario Moore. Art became second nature to her and she was drawn to it from the start. Though she is a multidisciplinary artist, Shaah primarily works with fibers and textile to create her own fabrics, dyes, and clothing. Shaah uses varying techniques such as screen-printing, sublimation, and air brushing in her artwork, but one common element is color. “I’ve been attracted color from the jump”. She is an artist with a vibrant personality with a wardrobe and art to match.